Thank you for “End the school fight / Helix and Grossmont District should go own ways” (editorial, March 4). The Grossmont school board needs to reprioritize its efforts toward education and stop wasting resources. I am curious how district students’ education would be strengthened if the board focused its time, effort and money on making schools better instead of draining scarce resources on what appears to be a witch hunt. At a time when districts across the state are facing millions in budget cuts, I wonder how much the board is spending on lawyers alone.

As a community member, I have followed the school’s progress from being just another high school to one that has raised the bar for students to succeed and be prepared for college. If Helix is such a thorn in the district’s side, then why not let it search out a charter through another agency?

MARTY ELLIS

San Diego

College salaries questioned

Regarding “County’s colleges see mass protests” (March 5): The increasing cost of a college education is well-documented. Our society responds by increasing taxpayer support, tuition charges and the amount of grant and loan money available. We seem to assume that the costs are legitimate and that our only recourse is to find ways to pay.

I haven’t seen anything written about efforts to control costs. Given the inflated levels of salaries and (particularly) benefits paid to public-sector employees throughout the state, an ongoing and hard-nosed review of personnel costs at our colleges seems to be appropriate.

Employees are not bashful about aggressively lobbying for higher salaries and benefits. No group speaks so aggressively on behalf of taxpayers. Someone needs to critically examine the salaries of faculty and staff – particularly full-time faculty. Before we even consider increasing taxpayer subsidies or student tuition, we need to make sure that students and taxpayers pay only what is necessary according to the market, and no more.

RUSSELL BUCKLEY

La Mesa

Lending a hand to border crossers

Regarding “Tooling around the border ... ” (March 7): I’d like to initiate a “nonviolent dialogue” with the authors of this article. Do they honestly believe that developing and then providing this device to illegal border crossers while taxpayers pay their salary is ethical and moral?

The people who make the decision to cross the U.S. border illegally do so freely and know the risks, and providing them an “extended hand” at taxpayer expense is just plain wrong.

Would the authors spend their time developing something burglars could use to foil alarm systems? I guess these misguided “educators” believe that anyone who reads their essay will understand they’re just trying to help poor immigrants. Give me a break; they’re justifying their leftist agenda, endangering the security of our country and interfering with Border Patrol agents. I’m ashamed these California public employees are sabotaging that security in the name of “free expression.” That expression isn’t free when taxpayers are paying for it.